It's a small barometer in a fob watch-style case, and was a Christmas present from Jenny. We have it sitting on the windowsill, and have started recording the pressure in a little notepad, along with other weather observations. Sure, it's only a highly localized (and cut-down) version of what the Met Office gives us, but there's something very satisfying (not to mention geeky) about recording data and trying to draw correlations—whether it be the effect of different media on bacterial growth rates or the variation of barometric pressure with local weather.

Once a scientist, always a scientist; regardless of the field; no doubt we'll soon be investing in an outdoor thermometer, rain gauge, wind vane and whatever other paraphernalia we can think of.

It having been Christmas, other families in our block of flats have also been sharing gifts. In one case evidently someone got a new microwave—I surmise this because the old, broken one was in the pile of Christmas-related rubbish next to the skip. Now, old microwaves are a gift to me, for no other reason than that I love the circular magnets that are an integral part of the magnetron.

Simply so that I can do this:

Levitating magnets guardian.co.uk

or indeed this:

And on that note, from all of us at Occam's Corner, many thanks for reading and for your support over the last few months, and have a fabulously wonderful and geeky 2013!